House Speaker Dean Cannon used a good chunk of his session opening remarks to criticize the federal government for rampant spending, likening leaders in D.C. to a "fiscal heroin addict" with China is its supplier.

"It's created a paralyzing web of entitlement programs and it's literally beginning to collapse under its own weight," Cannon said. "They forgot, for example, that social services are supposed to lift people out of hard times not wrap them in a cocoon of dependency."

It's up to state lawmakers, he said, to resist the temptation to appease special interests and be willing to wield the budget knife.

"We will have to reduce spending on good programs in order to preserve necessary programs," he said. As protesters gathered outside the state Capitol, Cannon said it's important for lawmakers to not be influenced by them, declaring, "We will not make decisions based on the politics of fear and anger."